In the games

His position as head of the factory allows Noland to view the Battle Swap data for any Trainers. He instructs others that just reading isn't enough to learn about Pokémon; instead, a Trainer must gain experience. He awards the Knowledge Symbol onto the Frontier Pass of Trainers who defeat him.

Quotes

This section is incomplete.Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: The player losing quote from the first battle.

Initial battle

Before battle

"Hey, Hey! Get a move on!"

"Hey, my name's Noland! I'm basically in charge of this place, which is why I'm the Factory Head! I had a look at your Battle Swap data. You seem to have the right idea, but you're still square in your head! Listen up, okay? Knowledge isn't only about reading books or doing desk work. Just doing that sort of thing... It may as well be useless! You have to experience things with your heart and your body, understand? I'll take you on under the same conditions as you. I'll be using rental Pokémon too! Shake out every last bit of your knowledge and bring it on!"

Being defeated

"Good job! You know what you're doing!"

After being defeated

"Smart going! Let's see your Frontier Pass."

"Heh... You're a pretty bright spark... Next time, I'll come after you hard. No holds barred, understand? You keep up your studies!"

Rematch

Before battle

"Hey, hey! Get a move on!"

"Hey, hey! How's it going? You keeping up with your studies? ...Oh? You've taken on a harder look than the last time I saw you. Now, this should be fun! I'm getting excited, hey! All right! Bring it on!"

In the anime

When Ash and his friends first arrived at the Battle Factory, they saw Noland having trouble with controlling one of his self-made vehicles. After using his Pokémon to stop the vehicle, Ash was introduced to Noland. Later Noland called all of his numerous Pokémon to eat, and explained the high number of his Pokémon by telling that the more Pokémon he had, the more different kind of battles he could have. To Ash's surprise, Noland then allowed him to choose which Pokémon he wanted to face. Ash, however, had trouble choosing one Pokémon above another. Soon Ash and his friends found out that the legendary PokémonArticuno they had seen last night was actually a friend of Noland's, which he had once saved with his plane when he had found it flying with a hurt wing. Ever since that, they had been good friends, often flying or even battling together, despite the fact that Articuno was techically a wild Pokémon. Wanting to experience what it was like to fly with Articuno, Max and Pikachu had went for a flight with Noland. Unfortunately, while they were flying, Team Rocket showed up with their new mecha, attempting to steal all the Battle Factory's Pokémon. Unfortunate for them, Noland sent Articuno against them, freeing the stolen Pokémon, destroying the mecha, and sending the trio blasting off once again. Later that evening, Ash surprised everyone by announcing that he wanted to battle against Articuno. Noland accepted the challenge, and Ash told that he was going to use his Charizard in the battle, which he had called back from the Charicific Valley.

On the next day, Ash and Noland had their battle. After quickly dealing with Team Rocket once again, Articuno and Charizard engaged in a dramatic battle, which, despite of Charizard's type advantage, turned out to be rather tough. Eventually, however, Charizard was able to defeat Articuno with its trademark Seismic Toss, although barely. After the battle, Noland admitted his defeat, and handed Ash his first Frontier Symbol, the Knowledge Symbol.

Noland enjoys inventing things and riding on the airplane that he made. Rather than battling with random Pokémon, Noland allows the opponent to choose who they will battle against.

Pokémon

Befriended

While on their way to the Battle Factory, Ash and his friends spotted Articuno flying through the night sky, accompanied by a biplane. After meeting up with Noland, he explains that he'd been cruising with Articuno the previous night. Max was impressed on how Noland caught such a powerful Pokémon, but Noland further explains that Articuno is wild, and a friend of his.

Noland revealed that on his biplane's maiden voyage, Noland was surprised to find an Articuno flying beside him and it had trouble flying due to an injured wing. The Factory Head got the Pokémon to land on top of his plane and brought it down. Noland helped it to heal, and ever since then Articuno had been regularly visiting him.

Voice actors

In the manga

In the Ash and Pikachu manga

Noland in the Ash and Pikachu manga

Noland appeared in Off To The Battle Frontier!! of the Ash and Pikachu manga. He becomes the first Frontier Brain that Ash battles. During the battle, he uses Articuno while Ash used Charizard. He was able to get the upper hand in the battle at first when Charizard struggled to keep up with Articuno but as Ash was able to turn the tables, Noland lost to Ash and rewarded Ash the Knowledge Symbol for defeating him. As Ash leaped in the air with excitement, Noland along with his friends had to help him back up as he almost fell off of the battle area.

Pokémon

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

Noland in the Pokémon Adventures manga

Noland makes his first appearance watching Spenser and Lucy participating in the Battle Frontier's opening ceremony. Feeling that Emerald's crashing of the opening ceremony not only insulted the Battle Frontier, but insulted the Frontier Brains as well, Noland decides that he will be the first to fight the young boy and throws him out of the window stating that he cannot feel a shred of "knowledge" in him.

Later, at the Battle Factory Noland is seen explaining the rules of his facility to Todd until Emerald manages to complete all of the battle sets. Noland and Emerald begin their battle, both using rental Pokémon. Despite Noland's powerful team and type advantages, he is eventually defeated by Emerald's newest team member, Sceptile.

The next day during Emerald's Battle Pike challenge, Noland decides to check something at the Battle Factory, he later realizes that the Sceptile that Emerald had used in their battle was not a rental Pokémon. He checks the number of rental Pokémon only to find out that the number of them is off and that there is no record of the Sceptile being trained in the factory. He suspects that someone must have broken in and smuggled some Pokémon into the rental Pokémon list, but before he can confirm this, he is attacked and knocked unconscious by the mysterious Guile Hideout.

Noland later appears at the Battle Tower's hospital recuperating from his injuries with the other Frontier Brains watching over him. Todd is taken to them for questioning as they believe that it may have been Emerald who had attacked Noland but decide to investigate further before taking action.

Noland reappears after Greta is defeated by Emerald stating that he couldn't stand lying on a hospital bed and snuck out of the hospital. He reveals that when he was attacked by Guile Hideout, he managed to scrape off a part of his sword, revealing that the sword has properties of the moves Reflect and Light Screen. Noland decides to investigate Jirachi further and asks Scott for the report on Jirachi made by Professor Oak so that he can pinpoint where it will appear next.

Noland later appears during Emerald's Battle Dome challenge where he is shown to have captured three Smeargle from the Artisan Cave that managed to Sketch Jirachi's Wish technique. With the Smeargle Noland planned to use their copied skill to locate Jirachi whenever it appeared but before they can Guile Hideout arrives on the scene and captures it.

He later joins Emerald, Sapphire, and Ruby on their climb of the Battle Tower and can be seen worrying about Anabel who isn't replying to his calls. They take some calmed down rental Pokémon and go through the Battle Tower, battling virtual Trainers until they finally reach the top. After fighting a brainwashed Anabel and Guile Hideout revealing his true identity, Noland arrives to the scene only to find Guile holding an unconscious Anabel hostage. He is forced to make a trade, the Jirachi report for Anabel, he reluctantly agrees to it and Guile uses the report to make his wish to create a giant sea monster.

When Guile’s sea monster attacks the Battle Tower Noland falls unconscious from the shock, so Emerald has Latios carry him and Anabel out to safety. Noland manages to wake up sometime later only to be hit once again by Guile’s sea monster when it floods the entire Battle Frontier and is washed away by the water. After Guile’s defeat by the Pokédex holders Noland can be last seen celebrating their victory with his fellow Frontier Brains.

Pokémon

On hand

Although he is in charge of all the rentals it was revealed that sometime before Emerald's challenge at the Battle Dome Noland was able to catch these Pokémon:

Smeargle (×3)

These three Smeargle were caught by Noland in the Artisan Cave because they had copied Jirachi's Wish and he decided to use it to search for Jirachi.

Smeargle's only known move is Sketch.
Smeargle have also used Wish* via Sketch.

Rented

Mawile ♂

Mawile was the first Pokémon that Noland used in the Battle Factory. He had a wide variety of moves that could allow him to defeat his opponents, but Emerald prevented him from using them with a clever usage of the move Trick. A Mawile, probably the same one from Noland's battle with Emerald, was later calmed down by Emerald and borrowed by Noland for the battle against Guile Hideout with the other Frontier Brains.

Glalie was the third Pokémon that Noland used in the Battle Factory. He fought Emerald's Sceptile and despite the type advantage and powerful moves, he was defeated by its Leech Seed and Iron Tail combination.

Trivia

A promotional Battle Frontier t-shirt sold at the New York Pokémon Center pictured Noland with Typhlosion, Steelix, and Electabuzz in the same way other Frontier Brains were pictured with their own Pokémon.

Noland is the only Frontier Brain to not have the first letter in his Symbol's name match his. The syllable no, however, does.

In English, he is one out of only two Frontier Brains to share the same title, the other one being Thorton. However, both Palmer and Anabel share the same title in the Japanese version: Tower Tycoon.